Products > Test Equipment

Vintage Tektronix oscilloscope Type RM15

(1/1)

Summerford:
Hi everyone

(my first post here ;-)

I wanted to share this - as this same model was mentioned on this a forum in a post a while ago...

A couple of weeks I came into possession of this scope - in fact I rescued it from imminent disposal  >:D.
When i opened it I was surprised to find the inside perfectly clean with no dust and in pristine state, with all the original components, no sign of replacement.
I gradually powered up the kit with the variac. It powered up but there was nothing on the display.

Luckily the scope came with the original manual and all the schematics. I shorted the vertical and horizontal  deflection signals and the dot was there; eventually I found the problem in the trace intensity pot, which was open. After a generous dose of contact spray, the trace came up on the cathode ray display.

The next problem was the distortion of the trace, both vertical and horizontal. With no input signal, the distortion showed a 100Hz periodicity, hinting at ripple on the rectifiers. In fact, 3 out of the 5 big electrolytic caps (125uF) were exhausted. I disconnected them and installed 3 new new ones, discretely placed, leaving the originals in place.

And that was it. It works like new - all the controls are ok. A 60 years old (at least) instrument - I found it listed in 1959 Tektronix catalogue!

I am amazed by the quality of the kit. The components are numbered according to the circuit they are in - identified by the first digit. All the the passive components are racked into ceramic strips, all is easily accessible and straightforward to trace. The manual is excellent.

Amazing kit!

Here are some photos

Cheers to all.






ccktek:
Congrats on your find.  A gorgeous instrument.

TimFox:
One advantage of the "UHF" SO-239 coaxial connectors used on Tektronix CROs of that vintage is that they accept normal banana plugs, as well as PL-259 coaxial plugs and the ubiquitous UHF/BNC adapters.

HMPMMP:
Absolutely beautiful device.

I rescued a 515A from a garage floor not long ago. It was very dirty but complete. After some serious clean-up, generally and electrically, I brought it up slowly and all functions work. It too has a hint of ripple (running it at higher frequencies), and I suspect the caps. For the hard life it had, I'm not complaining. It looks really good now and performs much better than I ever expected. I even managed to find some original P6000 probes. Very interesting - you adjust the capacitance / tune by turning the barrel of the probe.

Enjoy the RM15 and congratulations on your find.

tkamiya:
I had one of those many years ago.  Believe it or not, I was able to tune 144MHz radio with it.  It's nowhere near accurate of course, but it was able to display it.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

There was an error while thanking
Thanking...
Go to full version
Powered by SMFPacks Advanced Attachments Uploader Mod